New Delhi: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi, or K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s BRS party, which held Hyderabad for two consecutive terms till the assembly elections in 2023, is among the top five beneficiaries of the electoral bond scheme.
It has been the fourth largest recipient of electoral bonds, nationally. Of the total of Rs 1,322 crore it received, as per its own affidavit in a sealed cover, it is now established that Rs 195 crore came for the second largest buyer of bonds, Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL). MEIL is an infra company based in Hyderabad.
Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital gave BRS Rs 94 crore. Chennai Greenwoods Private Limited gave BRS Rs 50 crore. Hetero Drugs and Labs too donated Rs 50 crore each. This came in one year, 2022. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories donated it Rs 32 crore. Divis Laboratories, Aurobindo Pharma Ltd, MSN Pharmachem, Hazelo Lab, Natco Pharma, Hetero Drugs and Biological E are among pharmaceutical firms who are significant donors.
In its submission to the Election Commission it said, “Electoral bonds received, deposited, and credited to our party’s account from Oct 11, 2018, to Sept 30, 2023, totals 1,322 crore. However, detailed particulars of the donors against each bond are not available with us as the electoral bonds scheme procedure has not provided/facilitated for capturing of the details of the donors of the bonds.”
On April 12, 2022 BRS encashed 268 bonds each worth 1 crore, the highest it encashed in a single day. The data has no purchaser marked for Rs 23.55 crore worth of bonds encashed by the BRS. This is presumed to be the amount paid and bought before April 12, 2019, for which donors are yet to be identified, across parties.
Kitex Group
An interesting name emerging as a donor to the BRS, of Rs 25 crore in 2023 is the Kitex group, a garment major based in Kerala, which backed a political party called Twenty20, which AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal announced an alliance with in 2022, called the People’s Welfare Alliance.
Morphing from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi to a party nursing national ambitions in these past years, BRS changed its name to the Bharatha Rashtra Samithi. Its profile grew as it contested elections in Maharashtra and became more prominent. This was a significant leap for a party formed in the wake of a specific movement calling for a separate Telangana state.
There have been patterns emerging between Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids and those by other agencies on leading companies who are buyers of bonds. In the case of BRS, ED had been pursuing the BRS founder and head, KCR’s daughter, MLC K. Kavitha in the alleged liquor scam, before arresting her two days ago. She is in ED’s custody at present.
On Thursday night, ED went and arrested another sitting chief minister, the second INDIA ally to be picked up, AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal, in a matter related to the same policy which has now been scrapped. Former deputy chief minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh are also in jail in the same matter.
